Publisher's Editorial

(Mirror) Although national and international gay pride celebrations and Stonewall memorials are winding down, a spectacular summer is blossoming. LGBT communities are emerging globally and locally, powerfully and with purpose, under a colorful flag of vision and vitality.

But come now to summer.

Put away some of the politics. It’s the time of the year to take a journey to the center of your soul. Go find yourself a new heartbeat. Walk barefoot in a country field.

Nobody ever did the summer like Olivia Newton John and John Travolta did it in ‘Grease.’There is nothing more emotionally rewarding like a breezy and balmy summer night, under the stars, touching the heavens.

A journey to the Sequoias, Redwoods, and Humboldt County, California, will lend testimony to that. The high you get in Eureka will be from more than the marijuana grows populating their landscape. It will come from touching your mortality.

Fifty years ago this summer, the United States of America reached beyond its own grasp. On July 20, 1969, an American astronaut, Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon. But he spoke for the planet when he uttered the most famous words ever:

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for Mankind.”

Thank goodness it happened then, and not now. Today would have been a moment sponsored by the National Football League. You would have heard Armstrong pronounce, “This is a Pepsi Cola touch-down.

The year 1969 was memorable. A few weeks after our nation looked on in awe at what happened on the Moon, a music and arts festival in Woodstock, New York drew national attention here on Earth. Rock concerts would never be the same again.

In the past half-century, our world, our planet and our lives have endured triumph and tragedy. It is the way of time, and the way of life. Miami may be underwater before the century ends. But right now, folks, it is summer. Nothing else matters.

Ride a bicycle on the Utah plains. Canoe the rapids in Delaware. Tour a museum in Amsterdam. Get on a gondola in Venice. Snorkel in Mykonos. Take a cruise ship to the Bahamas. Go Fishing in the Grand Caymans.

This issue of the MIRROR features authors you can read, cars you can drive, safaris you can saddle up on, and cruises taking you across oceans, where you can sail the world. Find the one that fits you.

“There is beauty in this world,” my mom used to say, “and as long as you can open your eyes and ears, there are sights to appreciate and music to listen to. Make sure you do.”

Our days are long, but life is short. A journey is defined by time. Marvel in it. Magic is everywhere, though I would avoid those Las Vegas casinos. Hard work will do you better. Stay the course. Be decent to your neighbors and kind to your friends. Go to their funerals or they won’t go to yours.

The late actor, Humphrey Bogart once said that a

“A hot dog at the ballpark is better than a Steak at the Ritz.” He is right. There is pleasure on every corner, though I would stay away from that Emporium in Hollywood where the cops seem to enjoy busting gay people.

Take your dog to Tiger Tail Lake one weekend afternoon, and tell me you are not having a blast. If you want, go swimming with the California sea lions on Santa Barbara Island. Take a picture of it. We will run it in the next issue of the Mirror.

As I have written before, the Mirror magazine is designed to be a reflection of your lives. This issue, we feature the recently retired Miami Herald journalist, Steve Rothaus. For decades, he has covered the emergence of the LGBT community in South Florida.